Newsletters

Silly question? Almost anyone who has a connection to the internet has received one of these at one time or another.  Often you get them without asking (spam), sometimes you get them after you have downloaded some software and sometimes you actually ask for them. 

Which has the best selling effect?

The answer is simple - its the one your customer asks for.  There is no irritation in receiving it as long as you have a clearly marked statement that it is possible to cancel the subscription easily.  Typically that means at very least the ability to reply to the e-mail with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line.

In South Africa (after introduction of the recent ECT Act), spam is now officially illegal.  So what is spam?  Basically anything that you receive that you have not asked for in some way.  Of course, e-mails from your friends and colleagues is not strictly requests, but of course you don't really ask them to send you the information.  How about the e-mail you get from the guy that you gave your card to at a  trade show?  Hard to say - as long as she doesn't keep sending them.  A good way of defining it is by the ratio of adverts to content.  More than 30% advertising and I would say its not worth receiving regularly - unless you ask for it of course.

The second option - where you got something in return for accepting the newsletter  - falls somewhere in between, because strictly speaking you agreed to receive it but you will probably unsubscribe after the first edition.

The Components

The Content

Without decent content, you are nowhere.  Most business people receive between 20 and 200 e-mails per day.  Even if your customer has subscribed, only the interesting information will get viewed.  Your content must be concise and relevant.  We also recommend that it is rich in links to additional information.  This is an excellent way of introducing your web site.

If your newsletter has a lot of content, there should be an index and clear headings so that the reader doesn't have to plough through irrelevant information before reading what's really of interest.  We strongly recommend that you allow your customer to Customize the newsletter to his or her particular interests.  The more control the reader has over the content, the less chance there is of un-subscribing.  Using software such as Quirk Messager and a bit of customization, it is possible to set up a page on your site where the reader can choose the required conent of his or her newsletter.

The Format

There are a number of ways of delivering e-mail content.  The classic and most common method is the TEXT e-mail.  Its advantages are:

• It will always look the same
• it is considered a "safe" form of delivery
• it won't be stopped by firewalls

Its disadvantage is that it's BORING!

HTML is the original language used to write web sites. Most modern e-mail software is able to read e-mails in this format.  Its disadvantages are:

• not all e-mail programs will show the same results and in some cases they won't read it
• there are a few firewalls that don't allow HTML e-mails
• some HTML e-mails have require you to download pictures, so you need to be connected when you read them

As a rider to these, a variant of HTML called XML is now used extensively - paricularly for multiple platforms - and is more likely to deliver an accurate reflection of what was sent out.

The Advantage is that you can present your company image in the same look and feel as your stationery, business cards, web site and other material.  You can even add animations.

If you use a professional e-mailing company, it is possible to set up two formats of newsletter and let your readers choose which one they prefer. Contact us for more information.

The Look

As we implied above, the look of the e-mail should ideally reflect your company's image.  Here are a few examples.  The newsletter is really an extension of your web site providing regular updated information. Generally there will be somewhere on your web site where you store your historical newsletters.  (Take a look at some of the newsletters written by Rob Stokes, the MD of Quirk here)

Using an HTML/XML template, you can set up the background look and feel of your newsletter.  If you want to have advertising, you can place the advertisements and you can even specify where to find them on the web if they will not always be the same (remember the back end discussed under web sites?).

Generally